Articles

09 Sep 2014

Quick Tips: Stop Smiling! Stop smiling! Or, more aptly, stop having your character smile all the time. He smiled. She smiled. I smiled. They smiled. I read it everywhere. It’s the easiest way to show your character is happy. But are you really showing anything? There are variations on the theme, of course—mentions of lips turning up and grins breaking across faces, but it all...

08 Sep 2014

Divas on Writing: Wikipedia Is Not the Bible Freelance and independent editors aren’t fact checkers. In fact, we prefer not to fact check. There is a certain liability that isn’t the responsibility of the editor, but rather the author. You can pay your editor to specifically fact check, but it’s a touchy area. Editors at publishing houses are a different story, though. They are...

02 Sep 2014

Because and Since You’re probably wondering why I’m writing an article about two words that can be used interchangeably most of the time. Well, that’s because it’s most of the time and not all of the time. There are some instances where these two beauties cannot be swapped one for the other and it simply has to do with the use. When because and since are...

01 Sep 2014

Divas on Writing: Keep it Consistent – Characters This week, I’m continuing my series on keeping things consistent during the editing process. As I stated earlier, it’s easy for things to get way out of order after a big edit. If you are following up a major edit with nothing more than a proofread, it is imperative that you know how to keep things...

27 Aug 2014

Balancing Your Faith and Your Muse This article is personal. Very personal. I’m going to talk about faith, specifically Christianity. It may seem negative, but I don’t mean it to be. I love my faith, but I am not blind to the flaws—especially among those who profess it. I feel in a way the subject matter transcends faith. None of us live in a...

26 Aug 2014

Quick Tips: Writing Achilles’ Heel Most of the articles the Divas write draw from personal experience, and this one is not any different. I’ve been struggling with my first novel for a while now. Really, I’ve been struggling with many first novels. I have about four or five WIPs that can’t seem to get past chapter four. My intentions are great when I start...

25 Aug 2014

Building a Relationship With Your Editor You’ve finished your manuscript. It’s been tweaked and modified, and you’ve run it past three different pre-readers for comments and critiques. You’ve made your last series of changes, and you’re ready for editing. You’ve hired an editor… so now what? Now’s the time for you to begin building a relationship with your editor. Trust: The most...

19 Aug 2014

Quick Tip: Magically Moving Characters Have you ever noticed that sometimes characters just appear in scenes or move without action? Yeah? Me too. And it drives me crazy to be honest. Now you may wonder why that is a problem? Well, it’s because it disconnects the characters from the story. And it is in that moment that they become pawns instead of characters. Characters...

18 Aug 2014

Divas on Writing: It Takes a Village to Publish a Book I read an article the other day that suggested that authors could publish a book without hiring an editor simply by asking their readers to catch their mistakes for them. Interesting concept, if the only errors in the book are simple typos. But what if the story has issues with the plot, pacing,...

13 Aug 2014

Diva Chat: Kindle Unlimited With the start of Amazon’s new program Kindle Unlimited, I asked the Divas to weigh-in on the pros and cons. For those not in the know, Amazon rolled out Kindle Unlimited, a subscription e-book service. For $9.99 a month, subscribers receive unlimited access to participating e-books and audiobooks listed on Amazon. I asked the Divas to answer the following...